Pages

Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Claiming Victory in the Face of Bad Reviews

I'm repostingthis
postfrom June 29, 2011 in
light of the recent explosions in the book review blogsphere over
negative reviews and how authors respond to them. I remember this event
very clearly because I was just eerily calm about it all. That's when I knew I
had learned my lesson and developed my thick skin.

As the
July 5, 2011 drop date approaches for THE FIRST DAYS, more and more review
sites are posting their insights on the first book in the AS THE WORLD DIES
ZOMBIE TRILOGY.

Like any writer, I'm hoping for some good, solid positive buzz. I felt my
own personal review season got off to a great start with the Starred Review from Publisher's Weekly. I am not going to
lie. I wear that sucker as a badge of honor. I'll probably have it
engraved on my tombstone. When I saw that review, I was speechless.
It was like the publishing gods smiled down at me and acknowledged all my
blood, sweat and tears on the road to publication. Hell, I'm grinning as
I'm writing this.

But, of course, for all the good reviews I get, there are always the negative
ones that are going to pop up. When I first started on this career path, I read
every review and believed them. A good review made me feel like the
world's greatest writer. A negative review confirmed I was a worthless
hack.

It was hard to process the conflicting reviews barreling down on me: I love the characters in this book! I hate the characters in this book! The characters were so real! The
characters were cliche stereotypes! The plot was amazing! There was no plot! I cried I was so
emotionally moved! I threw this book across the room 'cause it was crap!
This is the best writer ever! This writer sucks!

My moods were easily manipulated by the subjective viewpoints of reviewers
online to the point where I had to swear off reading the reviews. It took
me a long time to get a healthy viewpoint on reviews.

Writers are constantly slashed by the sword of the subjective. One agent
may love your writing while another hates it. A publishing house may
declare your book complete drivel, while another plunks down a ton of money
because they love it so much. One review site will pin five stars to your
review, while another gives you zero.

Trust me, when you're starting out in this business, that sword of the
subjective sucks and sucks the big, ripe one. It hurts like hell and
sometimes that pain is enough to make people quite trying to accomplish their
dreams. But if you keep going and learn to shield yourself against that
terrible sword, it does get easier to deal with.

Tonight, my friend (and fellow writer) Kody Boye told me about a particularly
negative review THE FIRST DAYS just received.

A part of me wanted to be upset, but I fought that away, reminding myself of
the simple truth I came to understand a few years ago.

Some people will love my
books, some will hate my books, and usually for the exact same reasons.

The brutal truth
of the matter is that everyone has an opinion. I'm not saying that some
reviewers aren't absolute dicks in their reviews. Some are. I have seen a few
reviews by very well-respected critics bashing well-known authors works in a
way that appeared really personal and downright nasty. But as a writer, I have
to believe that when any reviewer bashes the author or the book in a way that
comes across as mean for the sake of mean, readers will recognize it.

In closing, I
thought I'd share this little gem. It's an Amazon review on THE LIVING DEAD BOY AND THE
ZOMBIE HUNTERS, a mid-grade horror novel I wrote (that adults can enjoy as
well) for the younger zombie fans. It knocked down my rating pretty badly, but I can't believe anyone
reading it will take it seriously. I mean...would you?

10 comments:

I'm going to print this and hang it in my office! I had a 3 star review recently where the reviewer listed all the reasons she liked the book, then announced, "Now for the negative...it was gross." That one made me laugh because I've had other readers ask for more gore because it's about a girl rotting to death. Being a new author, I've been dreading the really bad review. I know it's coming. Everyone gets one. But reading your experiences has already helped...and I love this "Stupid" review posted above! Can't be too upset about that one! And btw, my son loved "The Living Dead Boy"!

I have had similar reviews about the AS THE WORLD DIES trilogy where people complained about the gore. *blinks* Uh, it's a zombie book. But then they also complained about there not being enough romance. *blink* It's not a romance novel. But then I get the complete opposite: not ENOUGH gore, TOO MUCH romance.

Yeah, my son read the review and turns to me, "Did she not read the title? The Corpse Goddess?" Funny. I've also had a few people assume it's YA and it's most definitely not. I will have my son write a review! He'd love to. He also told all his friends about it at the time. :)

Yeah. It's been a while but I don't seem to remember the sex being all that twisted or sickening. I wonder if they haven't ever read any adult style vampire books? See perfect example of how two different people can see the same book different. LOL.